BFI Distribution acquires Cannes winner Everytime for UK and Irish cinemas
Written and directed by Sandra Wollner, the film won the Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes 2026.
BFI Distribution announces the acquisition from Charades of Everytime, the third feature from Austrian writer and director Sandra Wollner, for theatrical release in the UK and Ireland. An enigmatic story of an untimely death, grief, and a journey towards forgiveness, the film premiered at the 79th Cannes Film Festival and won the Un Certain Regard Prize. It has screened at international film festivals including the Sydney Film Festival and the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, with TIFF and the New York International Film Festival upcoming in September; it was recently awarded the Heart of Sarajevo Grand Prix at the Sarajevo Film Festival. The film will have its UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on 16 October. Everytime also has the honour of being selected as Germany’s entry for the 2027 Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. BFI Distribution will release it in UK and Irish cinemas in early 2027.
In Everytime, a tragedy brings a mother, daughter, and teenage boy together. Struggling with blame and forgiveness, the unlikely trio take a trip to Tenerife for a family holiday that never happened. Under the glow of the sun, past and present quietly start to overlap.
The main cast members are Birgit Minichmayr, Lotte Shirin Keiling, Tristán López, Carla Hüttermann and Naomi Elia Richard.
Looking stunningly beautiful on screen, the film was shot by British director of photography Gregory Oke (now living and working in Berlin), whose work on Aftersun won the Best Cinematography award at the 2022 BIFAs and five nominations in other awards ceremonies.
Born in 1983 in Austria, Sandra Wollner studied directing for documentary film at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Her first feature film The Impossible Picture received the Förderpreis Neues Deutsches Kino and the German Film Critics’ Award for Best Feature Film in 2018. Her graduation film The Trouble With Being Born had its world premiere at the 70th Berlinale in the Encounters section in 2020 and was awarded the Special Jury Award. The film also received the Austrian Film Award for Best Director and Best Feature Film and the German Film Critics’ Award in the categories Best Feature Film and Best Cinematography. Sandra now lives and works in Berlin.
Everytime is produced by Lixi Frank and David Bohun of Panama Film and Viktoria Stolpe of The Barricades.
The deal for the UK and Ireland was negotiated by Caitlin Smith from BFI Distribution with Hélène Espeisse of Charades.
Caitlin Smith, BFI Acting Head of Acquisitions, said, “We were stunned by Sandra Wollner’s Everytime, a profound and lyrical study of grief that will break and then mend your heart, while taking you on a hallucinatory journey through forgiveness and healing.”